Family Functioning in Adult and Child Asthmatics

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of asthma on social and famili' al behavior in adult and child asthmatics.
 

Materials and Methods: Twenty adult and 20 child asthmatics and one member of their families filled out the “Level of Expressed Emotion (LEE)” and “Family Assessment Device (FAD)” question-naires. Family members (FM) also filled out the “Social Functi¬oning Scale (SFS)” form. Comparisons were made between child¬adult patient group and patient-family member data. The statistical analyses were done by student’s t test.
 

Results: In the comparison of the child and adult patients, LEE scores were higher in adults. Among FAD subscales; affective invol¬vement of the patient, affective involvement of the FM and affec¬tive responsiveness of the FM were higher in the child group. Of SFS subscales; interpersonal functioning and independence subsca¬les were significantly lower in children. The comparison of the patient and FMs showed no difference between the patient and FMs in “LEE” and “FAD” in the children group. LEE score in adults was higher in patients than in the FM. No difference was found between the patient and FMs in FAD scores in the adult group.
 

Conclusions: Concerning the psychosocial characteristics of asth¬ma, perception of the patient and that of the family differed in many aspects. There were also differences between child and adult asthma groups. This study shows that education programs in asth¬ma management should also cover the relatives of the patients.